Description:
A Fine and Impressive French 19th Century Louis XV Style Ormolu-Mounted Mahogany and Parquetry Commode a Vantaux, after the model Antoine Gaudreaux's 'Commode Médallier du Roi Louis XV'. The ornate ormolu mounted serpentine body with a moulded shaped marble top above a pair of doors opening to four drawers, the front applied within a foliate and ribbon-tied acanthus leaves and flower garlands, the medals cast with Roman Emperors and centered by ovals with a cherub and goat and Ariadne on a leopard on a Royal Bleu background, all on a diamond parquetry ground centered by a female mask, the shaped sides with similar mouldings, centered by Hercules and Venus with Athena on moulded scroll legs, each headed with ram's head mounts. Circa: Paris, 1880.
This striking commode is based on the commode médallier by Antoine Gaudreaux (d. 1746), so called because it contained a set of the famous series of medals known as the medallic history of Louis XIV and Louis XV which included portraits of the leading crowned heads of Europe and to which medals of the most beautiful buildings of the reign of Louis XV were later added. It was delivered on 10 January 1739 for the Cabinet aux tableaux in Louis XV's new apartments at Versailles. It was referred to at the time as 'Par les Srs Gaudreaux ébéniste et Slodtz frères, sculpteurs, pour servir dans le cabinet aux tableaux avant la petite galerie à Versailles'. In 1755 a matching pair of encoignures were made by Gilles Joubert (d. 1775) which were removed with the commode médallier by the order of Louis XVI and placed in the Medal Department of the Royal Library. However in 1960 the suite returned to Versailles where it remains on display.
Literature:
Bibliothèque nationale de France
F. Souchal's 'Les Slodtz, sculpteurs er decorateurs du Roi'; 1685-1764, Paris 1967; page 148.
Daniel Meyer's 'Versailles: Furniture of The Royal Palace', Editions Faton; Dijon 2002; pages 96-101.
Height: 37 3/4 inches (95.9 cm)
Width: 72 inches (182.9 cm)
Depth: 26 1/4 inches (66.7 cm)
Ref.: A2807
Antoine-Robert Gaudreau (c. 1680 – 6 May 1746) was a Parisian ébéniste who was appointed Ébéniste du Roi and was the principal supplier of furniture for the royal châteaux during the early years of Louis XV's reign. He is largely known through the copious documentation of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne; he entered the service of the Garde-Meuble in 1726. However, since his career was spent before the practice of stamping Paris-made furniture began (1751), no stamped piece by Gaudreau exists and few identifications have been made, with the exception of royal pieces that were so ambitious and distinctive that they can be recognized from their meticulous inventory descriptions.
In one case, the identification of a royal commode permits the attribution to Gaudreau of several similar ones. The commode in question, formerly in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild, was delivered by Gaudreau on 4 August 1738 intended for the King's bedroom at Château La Muette. The gilt-bronze mounts, by which André Bouthemy attributed the commode to Charles Cressent, who may have been responsible for modelling them. Several commodes following this model exist, including one in the Jones Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. One of the group bears on its gilt-bronze mounts the crowned C tax stamp that was used in 1745-49, suggesting that the model remained current for several years.
The first French reference to a table servante, a dumb waiter or tiered serving table with recesses for cooling wine for suppers free of protocol and servants, occurs in a bill of Gaudreau in 1735, of furniture delivered to Versailles.
His premises were in rue Princesse, apart from the cabinet-making neighborhoods of Paris. He was elected syndic of the cabinet-makers' guild, the Corporation des Menuisiers-Ébénistes in 1744.
He was succeeded in his workshop, for a brief time, by his son François-Antoine Gaudreau (died 1751), also Ébéniste du Roi.
His most famous pieces are:
The commode-médaillier, a medal cabinet in the form of a commode, delivered in 1739 for the king's use in Louis XV's Cabinet à Pans at Versailles. In this commission Gaudreau followed a design provided by the Slodtz brothers. It is in the Cabinet des Médailles at the Bibliothèque Nationale.
The commode veneered with kingwood and satiné that he delivered for the King's Bedchamber at Versailles in 1739. It has gilt-bronze mounts by Jacques Caffieri, stamped FAIT PAR CAFFIERI. The commode is now in the Wallace Collection, London (Cat.no. F86).
The low cupboard-bookcase delivered in 1744 for the king's Cabinet d'Angle at Versailles. The commode à la Régence (illustrated above), delivered for the Dauphine's apartment at the Château de Fontainebleau in 1745. It is now at Versailles.
A bureau plat now in the Archives Nationales. (Verlet 1945).
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